14-year Tri-City legislator sets his sights on ousting a different WA elected official

Brad Klippert, a Kennewick Republican who served 14 years in state Legislature, wants to be Washington’s top school official.

Klippert, 65, will run for Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2024, according to a recent filing with the Washington Public Disclosure Commission.

The 2024 election season won’t begin until May of next year, when candidates file with elections offices. Klippert registered his campaign with the PDC, the state agency that regulates election campaigns, more than a year early.

Klippert, a Benton County sheriff’s deputy who serves as a school resource officer in Kiona-Benton City schools, could not be reached about his interest in the school role.

He is a familiar political force in the Tri-Cities with a track record that includes several unsuccessful runs for statewide office, including for U.S. Senate and Washington Secretary of State.

Locally, he’s been more successful at translating his image as a conservative “firebrand” into wins at the ballot box.

The 8th Legislative District, which includes Kennewick and Richland before the lines were redrawn to include Pasco, elected him to the Washington House of Representatives every two years starting in 2008, typically by large margins.

He came under scrutiny during the COVID-19 pandemic for his refusal to be vaccinated against the virus, calling it “truly ineffective.”

His highest profile efforts during his tenure in Olympia included introducing a bill to ban the Washington state ferry system from flying most flags after a gay pride flag was flown, a bill to ban transgender people from using the bathroom that matches their gender and a bill to retroactively protect businesses that choose not to serve same-sex marriages.

He also supported creating a task force to explore dividing Washington and Oregon into two new states divided at the Cascade Mountains because of political leanings.

In 2022 during his final session, Klippert introduced bills addressing catalytic converter theft and domestic violence as well as several proposals related to election integrity, including requiring forensic audits, requiring watermarks on mail-in ballots and requiring in-person voting.

Newhouse challenge

He registered with the PDC to run for an eighth term in the state house in 2022, but opted instead to challenge U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, the Sunnyside Republican who represents Washington’s 4th District in the U.S. House.

At the time, Klippert told the Herald he’d been approached to challenge Newhouse after he voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump.

Klippert placed fifth in the eight-way August primary, winning 15,430 votes or about 10% of the 150,380 votes cast.

While he failed to reach to the general election, he drew enough votes to help Democrat Doug White advance to the general election. White edged out Republican Loren Culp, the former gubernatorial candidate who was endorsed by Trump to unseat Newhouse, by 5,263 votes.

Though there’s no way to determine which candidate Klippert’s supporters would have chosen if he hadn’t been in the race, it’s possible they could have given Culp enough votes to secure a second-place finish that would have set up a Republican versus Republican contest in the general. Culp blamed a “spoiler candidate” for his primary loss.

Instead, Newhouse easily defeated White in the general, becoming one of the only impeachment supporters to secure a new term.

Other campaigns

Shut out of the election, Klippert turned to another race and mounted a write-in campaign for Washington Secretary of State. He was endorsed by the Washington State Republican Party. While he raised $16,200, he failed to meaningfully affect the outcome.

State records indicate about 130,000 write-in votes were cast for secretary of state, or about 4% of the total. Official election results do not identify write-in candidates by name.

His other statewide bid was a 2004 attempt to secure the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Patty Murray. He lost the primary to George Nethercutt, who lost to Murray in the general.

Washington State Guard

Outside of politics, Klippert has had a multifaceted career that’s kept him in the public eye for decades.

Most recently, he officiated at the April 8 funeral for a stillborn girl whose remains were found discarded along Interstate 82 a month earlier.

He served in the military for 28 years, including 20 as a Chinook helicopter pilot. He remained in uniform as a member of the 80-member Washington State Guard.

In 2016, he was made commander of the state guard and promoted to full colonel.

Public Disclosure Commission records indicate Klippert is a successful fund raiser.

He raised nearly $290,000 over the course of 10 state-level campaigns, and about $43,000 for his U.S. House run.

Data was not available from the Federal Elections Commission for his 2006 U.S. Senate campaign.